A Twist in Time (1)

Chapter Three

As Dean Thomas, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, fell asleep the Marauders, minus Peter, got out of bed as James pulled his invisibility cloak out of his pocket and threw it over Sirius, Remus and himself, hiding them from any prying eyes.

"Well, your son gets into a lot of trouble Prongs," Sirius whispered. James didn't respond he was still trying to understand what had gone down a few minutes ago. The three walked down the steps to the common room not expecting to hear voices. He had presumed that the trio had left after their abrupt exit.

"Sirius it keeps happening," Harry said to the mirror, "the dreams won't go away. It's getting worse." The Marauders looked to Sirius, he was still standing under the cloak, they realized the older Sirius must have been on the other side of the mirror. The Marauders got closer and closer to Harry, Ron, and Hermione as to be able to see through the two-way mirror. They tried to remain as quiet as possible.

"Harry, you listen here, I need to know if you feel the pain in the dreams when you wake up," the older Sirius said, his voice concerned and Harry ran his hand through his hair, just as James did when he was stressed out.

"It hurts as if I was hit with a cruciatus curse all over again," Harry said with a sigh, the stress from the night and potentially many other nights evident in his posture. His shoulders were slumped and his eyes gave away that he hadn't been sleeping well. James wondered where he had been when all of this had been happening and he frowned. How could he let his son go through all of this?

"Harry, you are re-living that night in your head, over and over again. I know it's painful but I'm afraid there is nothing we can do about it. Ron, Hermione you can't wake him up which I'm sure you know. The only way to get over this is when you feel like you know what's making you get these dreams. I know there are new students, I want you to know you can trust them," The older Sirius said with a wink to where the three Marauders were standing, Hermione looked over her shoulder in their direction but when she came up with nothing she looked back to the screen, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"How do you know we can trust them?" Hermione asked the older Sirius.

"Their a friend of the Order and that's all you lot need to know," the older Sirius said in a stern voice, one that the Marauders had never heard from their current Sirius.

"I can't do this every night Sirius," Harry said as his shoulders dropped even further. He looked so worn out and James just wanted to comfort his son, it was a strange feeling as a couple of hours ago he didn't know he had a son but he wanted to make him feel better.

"I know, it's going to be hard Harry, but there aren't any other options. Remus and I having been doing as much research as we can on the strange dreams but all it says is that you have to wait it out. At least it's only once a night," Sirius said with a frown. "I wish I could be there to help you but I can't, be careful, all three of you."

"Goodnight Sirius," Harry answered while looking away.

"Goodnight you three. Try not to get into any trouble."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood up and walked back to their dormitories. Once the Marauders were sure that the trio was gone the Marauders removed the invisibility cloak.

"Why would my son talk to this git rather than me? Am I a bad father?" James said as he looked at Sirius with a glare, not aimed at his best mate but at the fact that his son had chosen to go to his best mate rather than him.

"I'm sure there is a very logical explanation to all of this," Moony consoled his friend, he gave James a half smile as he considered all the potential reasons.

"Your probably right Moony, maybe I'm away on an Auror mission or something," James agreed after a moment of thought, his normal smile coming back to his mischevious features.

"Come on, let's go back to bed," Sirius said patting his best mate on the back.

The Marauders went to bed with one thought on their mind, how did we get to this future.

THE NEXT MORNING

"GET UP RON!!!!" Harry yelled at his friend.

"Blimey Harry," Ron grumbled.

"Ya Harry you woke up the whole dorm," Seamus grumbled.

"Sorry but Ron needs to get up. We said we would meet Hermione to talk about what Snuffles said," Harry apologized to the rest of the dorm going quieter at the last part. However, Sirius heard and choked on his own spit. Had he told the trio to call him Snuffles? His pet name! The Marauders silently laughed as they heard the name and Sirius glared at them. He hated being called Snuffles.

"Ron get out of bed! Hermione's waiting. I've been up for hours!" Harry said with exasperated.

"Fine, give me a few minutes it's only 5:30," Ron said annoyed.

"Hermione's already in the great hall waiting, that's where I'm going," Harry told Ron as he walked out of the dormitory.

"Who's Snuffles?" Sirius asked. Ron's eyes widened and his eyes only met Sirius' for a second before he averted his gaze to his hands.

"Damn it Harry... he's just a friend is all," Ron cursed before coming up an excuse and standing up and beginning to stretch.

"Is that a nickname?" Remus asked, incredibly invested in the conversation, just like the rest of the Marauders.

"You could say that," Ron said before rushing into the washroom without another word.

"That was weird," Remus said after a minute.

"That's just how they act Ron, Harry, and Hermione. They don't trust anyone but themselves. They keep a lot of secrets," Seamus said with a yawn.

"Why do they keep so many secrets?" James asked concerned, why was his son so closed off?

"Well, Harry's had a rough go of it, Ron and Hermione would protect him with their lives. The Boy Who Lived should really be the Boy Who Lived Five Times," Dean muttered as he started to fall back asleep. At this point, Ron began to rush out of the washroom to the door, but before he could make it out, Sirius asked him a question.

"Snuffles is an odd name, who came up with that?"

"Oh- I- um they did," Ron stuttered before sprinting out of the dorm, clearly hiding something.

"Come on, let's get out of here. Head down to the great hall," James said as he got out of bed.

"But it's so early," Sirius complained slamming his head against his pillow.

"Now Sam," Remus said. The three boys got out of bed and picked out their robes from a trunk that was already waiting for them. The three boys (Peter fell back asleep) headed downstairs to find Lily sitting on the couch reading.

"Green," James said as he walked to the exit.

"Chaser," Lily spat obviously still angry with the events of the previous day.

The three Marauders walked down to the great hall to find Harry, Ron, and Hermione talking quietly at the end of the table.

"Snuffles said Voldemort has been laying low. He doesn't want the ministry to know he's back. He just wants the ministry to convince everyone Dumbledore and I are crazy," Harry said before he saw the Marauders when he shut his mouth.

"Hey," Harry said.

"Hey," James said taking the seat next to Harry.

"What's your schedule? We have potions first with Snape," Ron said with a sigh.

"Snivellus?" Sirius said with shock, "He's a professor?"